Todo sobre mi madre. 1999.

A movie about transformation in various forms transformed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s career forever and introduced Penélope Cruz to a worldwide audience. It transformed him into an Oscar winner.

1999’s All About My Mother might seem simple on page. A bereaved mother returns to Barcelona after the death of her son to find his father (a transsexual) and find herself and a place in the world after her son’s untimely death. The movie is deeper than it appears and leaves a lasting memory in the viewer’s mind.

For fans of All About Eve and A Streetcar Named Desire, the film will leave even more of an image, as it relies heavily on these two classic films to tell the tale.

Manuela (Cecilia Roth) works informing doctors how to deliver bad news to their patients in a way that allows for them to get organ transplants. She has a son, Esteban, who just turned 17. To celebrate his birthday, after watching All About Eve at home the night before, they go to a performance of A Streetcar Named Desire in Madrid. After the show, Esteban (Eloy Azorín) waits outside in the pouring rain for an autograph from his favourite actress, the star of the show, Huma Roja (Marisa Paredes). While running after her car, he is struck by a taxi and killed.

Manuela follows his transplanted heart to A Coruña before deciding to return to Barcelona where she once lived to tell Esteban’s dad, who is now HIV + and lives as a woman, Lola. While looking in the seedy outskirts of Barcelona, she meets up with her friend Agrado (Antonia San Juan), another transgendered person who Manuela was friends with before leaving Barcelona. As the two look for jobs, they meet a pregnant nun, Rosa (Penélope Cruz) wanting to save the world. Rosa’s baby’s father happens to be Lola. Got that so far?

Manuela ends up becoming Huma Roja’s personal assistant and the four women (Manuela, Agrado, Rosa and Huma) embark on a friendship. When tragedy strikes again, Manuela finally meets up with Lola and deals with the past, present and future.

All About My Mother is a movie about transplants (literal and figurative) and transformations. Almodóvar makes a stunning transplant from Madrid to Barcelona in one of his most memorable scenes (I’m leaving the YouTube link at the end of the entry after the Almodóvar checklist and Spanish translation), showing off the beautiful city and he can make a film outside of Madrid. He immediately ditches the touristic Barcelona (Sagrada Familia, the statue of Christopher Columbus) for the seedy Barcelona most tourists will never see, the fields of the junkies and prostitutes.

It’s also about being authentic. Agrado gives a passionate speech about being authentic, and authenticity is another recurrent theme in the film.

The film is dedicated to women, actresses and mothers. It is perhaps his strongest woman film and definitely his best melodrama. The theme of friendship and women overcoming the worst obstacles present in the majority of his films is strongest here.

The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

Rating: A

Almodóvar Checklist:

Chicas Almodóvar: Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Penélope Cruz
Antonio Banderas: No.
Poisoned Gazpacho: No
Madrid: Sí
Galicia: Sí. I’m not sure WHY Galicia starts appearing in all his films, but this film starts the Galicia fixation when the transplanted heart goes to A Coruña.
Drugs: Sí.
Musical Sequence: No, but a ton of theatre scenes.
Men Too Gay To Function: No, but some lesbians (Huma Roja and her bisexual girlfriend Nina). And I think Esteban was probably gay.
Transvestites: Yes, and transsexuals and transgendered…this movie is very trans.
Furniture Ikea Could Never Market: Oh yeah baby. Gotta love Cecilia’s Barcelona flat.
Surreal rape scene: Attempted rape of Agrado.
Meta Slow Camera Pan To Show How Much He Really Loves Cinema: Sí
Mirror Scene: Reflection of la Sagrada Familia in the taxi window. Later, with Huma Roja in the dressing room. Most of the dressing scene rooms have reflecting scenes.
Dress from Lady Gaga’s rejected pile: Sí. Seriously, no wonder Rosa’s mother thought Manuela was a prostitute.
Aspect of Spanish Culture Turned On Its Head: The trans community shines in this film from 1999. Also, Spanish IS spoken in Barcelona! Almodóvar can make films outside Madrid!Catholic Church As Bad Guy: Nope. Nun Rosa is shown as a saint.
Taxi: Sí.
His mother: No, but it can be seen as a dedication to his mother.
Reference to earlier film: Manuela (different actress) appeared in La flor de mi secreto.
Odd Advertisement: Dancing babies.